Does this require a new subforum or would it fit into one of the existing ones (or is there already a topic covering this that I am missing)? I listen to the Radio Classics channel on Sirius XM and find the old episodes of The Jack Benny Program to be reliably hilarious. Although that was a scripted radio program with multiple characters and writers, I've always thought Benny's stand up routines were quite funny, as well. For more contemporary stand up comics, the first name that comes to mind is Dave Attell, although I haven't seen any of his recent work. I was a big fan of his old "Insomniac" TV show, which I thought was creative and a good vehicle for his brand of humor. Who are some of your favorite stand up comedians from the past or present?

Nov 30, 2014 - "In Conversation: Chris Rock" by Frank Rich on vulture.com
This is a good interview. One thing that was incredibly poignant to me was Chris Rock's description of black people needing teeth pulled in Andrews, SC.

Brenner's first time on "The Tonight Show" in 1971:
Brenner, among other things, reflects on that performance in 2013. Wow, you talk about a deep, reflective opine - what he's saying extends far beyond stand-up comedy, but for *every* aspiring stand-up comedian, this is required viewing. In just eight minutes, he touches on a lot of fascinating things - Brenner was a true comic pioneer who really lived the transition from old-school to new-school:

If you enjoy a Louis CK-style of standup, you might enjoy Rory Scovel, who has recently come out with a Netflix special called "Rory Scovel Tries Stand-Up for the First Time."
If you aren't familiar with Scovel (I doubt this is his first-ever stand-up, despite the name), he's a solid, somewhat unorthodox, talent whom I would put in the second tier behind the best-of-the-best. This is not to say that he isn't funny - there were moments in this routine that were laugh-out-loud funny - merely that this probably won't be "The Best" stand-up special you've ever seen. Still, I found it well-worth watching.
He is absolutely influenced by Louis CK, but his humor, while extremely crude, doesn't quite hit the border of "inappropriate" (CK's bit about pedophilia shocked even me). Still, Scovel isn't afraid to make jokes using topics such as genocide, anal sex, etc. - he isn't crude for crude's sake, but he is often crude, so if that offends you, be forewarned.
I enjoyed this special, and can recommend it to others - not as anything ground-breaking, but as good, solid, stand-up comedy.

IMHO, Patton Oswalt is one of the funniest comics out there. His new stand-up special on Netflix, "Annihilation" is riotously funny and at the same time tremendously poignant.
During the first third or so of the show, Oswalt lays down some jokes about the current POTUS that are freakin' hilarious. I have copied and pasted one of my favorite jokes below and whited it out so you can view it by highlighting. I don't want to offend anyone who doesn't appreciate humor regarding this topic.
The rest of the show is devoted to his experience, over the last year, of dealing with the unexpected death of his wife and impact on his young son. Obviously a heavy and personal topic, but Oswalt pulls it off without being maudlin or undignified. I've never seen any stand-up routine quite like it. Actually, I feel bad about calling it a stand-up routine-- it's much more.
I highly recommend it.
A review from the AV Club
Now the joke:
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"And by the way, I feel bad — I feel bad for Trump.The poor guy — look. Here's what happened.They had that, that, uh, the journalist dinner, the correspondents dinner. Obama went up, made fun of Donald, very mean.
And Donald said, "I'm takin' his job. You don't make fun of me. I'll take your job."
Spent all this money. Now he has the job, and he's sittin' there, goin', "This job sucks. My life before this was amazing, it was golf and hookers and jets."
Donald Trump taking Obama's job would be like if the head of linguistics at Rutgers made fun of David Lee Roth.
And David Lee Roth was like, "I'm gonna take his job,zibbly-bobbly-boop."
And then he spends 40 million dollars. And he goes into that first meeting like, "All right, I'm the head of linguistics at Rutgers! Bring on the hookers and the cocaine!"
And they're like, "No, we're gonna talk about the lack of recursion in German Romantic poetry."
And he's like, "Humaly-bebaly-zibbly-boobly? What just happened?""
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I just finished watching "Annihilation" by Patton Oswalt, and it was fantastic - it was as good as any high-dollar stand-up video I've ever seen.
Oswalt is clearly influenced by Louis CK, but he's Louis CK on steroids. How this man was able to go from Trump, to audience-teasing, to an extended skit about his wife's death, to pitching a film, to spending Halloween with his daughter, and make the entire thing not just funny, but *hilarious*, is almost incomprehensible - the "Polish lady of doom" was the thread that helped him do it, and I honestly thought she'd make an appearance in the last sketch, but he did it without her.
This is currently on Netflix, and I cannot recommend it highly enough - it is truly *great* stand-up comedy, a level which makes me ask myself, why on earth have there only been perhaps 10, perhaps 20, of "these" well-funded productions in history? When they work, they're as entertaining as any film or sporting event, and "Annihilation" works in a big way.
I cannot recommend this any more enthusiastically!
I also recommend watching the show first, and then enjoying these articles afterwards:
"Patton Oswalt's 'Annihilation' Is Funny and Profound" by Alison Herman on theringer.com "Patton Oswalt Returns to Stand-Up: The Comedy of His Life" by Dan Snierson on ew.com "Patton Oswalt's 'Annihilation' Review: Humor Meets Heartbreak" by Evan Valentine on collider.com "In His New Standup Special, Patton Oswalt Makes a Triumphant Return from Annihilation" by Dennis Perkins on avclub.com "Patton Oswalt Gets Personal about Wife's Death in New 'Annihilation' Netflix Comedy Special" by Ashley Boucher on thewrap.com "Patton Oswalt Faces Wife's Death with Jokes, Heartbreak, and Body Fluids in New Netflix Special" by Maeve McDermott on usatoday.com "Patton Oswalt on Surviving Trump's Tweets and Surviving Annihilation" by Andrew Husband on uproxx.com "Patton Oswalt on Chaos, Kindness, and 'Annihilation'" by Isaac Kozell on splitsider.com "What's on TV Tuesday: 'Patton Oswalt: Annihilation' and 'Hit the Road'" by Sara Aridi on nytimes.com "Patton Oswalt Works through the Void on 'Annihilation'" by Audra Schroeder on dailydot.com "In 'Patton Oswalt: Annihilation' on Netflix, the Comedian Uses Dark Humor To Cope with His Wife's Passing" by Taylor Maple on bustle.com
... and there are many more.

"Amy Schumer Live at the Apollo" is available in two ways through HBO Online - either with a direct subscription, or if you enter your service provider (you'll need a name and password).
This was performed in 2015 and is Amy at her crudy, raunchy best - between her and Margaret Cho, you're really in for a roller coaster ride if you watch their stand-up comedy routines.
I do with both Amy and Margaret would stop criticizing (even jokingly) their bodies - I mean, we hear Louis CK doing the same type of stuff, but not to this extent. You girls both look fine to me! Stop it! Enough! Be comfortable in your own skin! Time for new material!
The bit about her <ahem> doing the Charleston, dancing around with a cigarette hanging out of its mouth, was laugh-out-loud funny.
One thing I notice about Amy Schumer's comedy is that it never gets boring - she doesn't stay on any one topic for very long, so if it would be a bomb, it's not long enough to explode; she just moves on, and most of her topics are at least good enough to draw a smile if not a light chuckle (and that's if you're home alone); with a group of people in the room, it's probably more laughter.
Okay, during the scene when she scarfed down her scone I literally spat out my drink onto my keyboard, and I kid you not - it caught me totally off-guard, it was about 1/10th of a second long, and it was hilarious.
Wow, there is some *shocking* material in here! The Obama bit even shocked me.
Wacky Shirley LOL!

This 2004 film depicts Margaret Cho performing stand-up comedy at the Wiltern Theater in Los Angeles (that's why I'm putting it in the sparsely populated Theater Forum). I haven't seen the entire film, but there's one laugh-out-loud funny scene from it that I confess to having watched about five times.
Fair warning: This is Margaret Cho at her absolute crudest, which is positively NSFW! You might want to watch it alone so your loved ones don't see you doubled-over laughing at such a thing.

Although I enjoyed the late episodes of Seinfeld, the TV series, and am having something of a renaissance with it on Crackle, as well as diving into Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee, I knew almost nothing about Jerry Seinfeld, the man, until recently - I certainly didn't know (and wouldn't have guessed) that he is the wealthiest actor in the world (I think I would have guessed Tom Cruise, but Seinfeld apparently has almost double his net worth). Both he and Larry David are closing in on a billion-dollar net worth - I guess they caught the crest of the television wave before it began to crash.
One thing about Seinfeld that I've observed, after some digging, is that he doesn't come across as a very "nice guy." Witness the somewhat overblown article, "Seinfeld-Schisms: Jerry's Tried-And-True Methods Of Ballbusting Divert Buzzfeed Interview" by Drew Grant on observer.com. I watched the entire video (embedded in that article), and indeed, Seinfeld controlled that entire interview, and had Buzzfeed's Business Editor, Peter Lauria, on the defensive the entire time, on egg shells, afraid to ask any question that would rile Seinfeld.
On the other hand, Seinfeld stood by his friend, Michael Richards, when Richards hit rock-bottom which reminds me of what James Carville did with Bill Clinton (recall the book, "Stickin'"). I understand this is a personal decision (whether or not these people are worth sticking by), but I have always thought that standing by your friends, and giving them a hand up, when they are that their lowest possible moments, is a character strength of the absolute highest order, and is a trait that I admire and look up to almost as much as any other. I didn't particularly like Carville (although I admired his penchant for Rhone Valley wines) until he stuck by Clinton, and that unwavering loyalty gave me a whole new outlook on his persona.